Various electrical circuits, especially those associated with computer applications, are formed on one or both sides of circuit boards or similar substrates to form separate circuits which may be added to computers or other electronic devices after initial manufacture thereof. Whether such separate circuit boards are added during the initial manufacture or afterwards, they must be reliably connected to the main computer printed circuit board, commonly referred to in the art as a "mother" board. The separate printed circuit boards are commonly referred to as "daughter" boards.
Various connectors have been designed for permanent installation on the mother board and include means, such as a slot, for receiving the daughter board to provide a connection between the mother board circuitry and the daughter board circuitry. The daughter boards commonly are referred to as "edge cards" because one edge of the card has a plurality of contact portions or pads. The edge of the circuit card typically has a plurality of such contact pads spaced there along. One or both sides of the edge card may have such contact pads. This edge is inserted into the slot of the connector which includes a number of electrical contact portions which may be disposed along one or both sides of the connector slot for engaging the edge card contact pads. The connector contacts typically include tail portions for interconnection to the circuitry of the mother board mounted beneath or adjacent the connector.
With the ever-increasing miniaturization of the electronics of computers and other electronic devices and the ever-increasing density of the related connector assemblies, continuing problems occur in designing connectors for such use. This is particularly true with card edge connectors of the character described above.
One of the problems encountered with card edge connector assemblies is in providing means to assist insertion and/or ejection of the edge card from the card edge connector assembly. As the number of contact elements that engage the printed circuit card increases, the forces required for insertion and ejection of the card increase. One type of card ejection means which has proven effective for its intended purposes is an ejecting mechanism which comprises a relatively short ejector arm or lever mounted at one or both ends of an elongated connector housing, such as at a single point of engagement typically provided by a pivot means. Such ejector arms or levers place considerable limitations on the overall length of the connector and particularly the effective contact or terminal length of the connector. The length of the connector inherently limits the number of connections or terminals. When a given connector has a specified overall length, the ejector levers limit the number of connections available for use in that given or specified length.
The present invention is directed to solving these various problems by providing an improved connector/ejector lever assembly which is effective to increase the area available for making terminal connections as well as increase the forces applied by the lever.